ASCILITE NEWS

2015 Community Mentoring Program is Open for Applications

The ascilite Community Mentoring Program (CMP) aims to provide mentoring opportunities across a number of fields including technical, academic development, learning development, faculty academics, early career researchers, graphic designers and programmers. The program has been operating since 2003 with approximately 100 members having taken part to date.

We define mentoring as collaboration between ascilite members for the purpose of achieving an agreed goal through dialogue, action and reflection. The focus of these collaborations can be across a number of areas including:

Academic practice

Early career research

Teaching innovations

Learning design

Graphic design

Programming

Purpose of the Program

The ascilite CMP seeks to involve participants in a professional mentoring relationship built between learners (the mentees) and experienced practitioners (the mentors). Whilst the new learners may be experienced in some areas of educational technologies, the ascilite Community Mentoring Program is a vehicle for enhancement of specific knowledge, skills or capacities in an area of developing expertise.

The deadline for Expressions of Interest (Applications) is 20 February 2015.

Abstract: This online session will explore; (a) digital badging and how it can warrant learning and motivate higher education students; (b) implementing a whole of program approach in a degree program or for extra-curricular activity; (c) implementing a whole of institution approach to badging including policy, change leadership and professional bodies.

Audience interaction will be encouraged to make it a lively session.

The session will be hosted by Professor Geoffrey Crisp (RMIT University, Australia) and Dr Mathew Hillier (The Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of Queensland, Australia.

For further information, to RSVP and receive joining instructions please visit the website here.

ascilite2014 Conference Proceedings

The full proceedings from the ascilite2014 conference in Dunedin 23 – 26 November 2014 may be viewed and/ordownloaded via the ascilite website here. Proceedings from all past ascilite conferences are located on the same page.

OTHER NEWS

Study on multimedia competencies of educational technologists in higher education

Dear Potential Participant,

My name is Muhammad Nazil Iqdami and I am a master’s student at the University of Georgia, currently completing my master’s thesis in Learning, Design, and Technology. My research focus is on identifying the current multimedia competencies of an educational technologist needed to succeed his/her job within the context of higher education. If you are an educational technologist who serves in a higher education institution and are concerned with most current competencies that must be possessed by professionals in the field of educational technology, I would like to invite you to participate in my study. The term educational technology here includes job positions such as instructional designer, instructional technologist, curriculum designer, and other related names.

Your participation will only cost you 10-15 minutes to complete an online questionnaire in which you will only be asked to rate the level of importance and the level of complexity of a list of educational technology competencies within the context of higher education. I will open this online questionnaire until January 31, 2015.

If you would like to participate, please continue to the university website here to read more details, give your consent to participate and begin the survey.

I am sure that many of you are or have sought the help of others to complete your dissertations, thesis or research you consider personally important. I will be extremely grateful if you can help me with your participation or in sharing this email with others you know who may be an educational technologist working in a higher education institution.

If you have any questions or concerns about the study and wish to speak to someone else, please feel free to email me at mnazil25@uga.edu or email my academic advisor, Dr. Robert M. Branch, at rbranch@uga.edu.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Muhammad Nazil Iqdami
Master's Student
Learning, Design, and Technology
The University of Georgia

Ed.note: This item is published because the ascilite Executive wishes to support and encourage the engagement of students in ascilite and its activities.

Job Vacancies: Senior Educational Designers, Open Polytechnic NZ

The Open Polytechnic is New Zealand's specialist provider of distance learning, from certificate to diploma and degree level, and is internationally recognised in its field. We strive to support vocational lifelong learning and national development goals through innovation and excellence in open, flexible learning. Each year we help around 30,000 learners gain the skills they need for their current or future careers.

We are now looking to recruit two Senior Educational Designers to join our Educational Solutions team.

The two roles are as follows:

One fixed term full time position until 29 May 2015

One permanent part time position, 20 hours per week (0.5FTE)

This is a strategic role responsible for ensuring educational rigour in the design of the Open Polytechnic's course offerings. The Senior Educational Designer will work on a variety of projects from a wide range of subjects. This person will work with Faculty and the Educational Solutions team to lead the design and development of pedagogically sound teaching and learning experiences for open and flexible programmes.

The successful candidate will possess proven ability and commitment to technology-enabled open and distance learning. They will be equally comfortable designing for a traditional, correspondence model that involves print based materials.

The successful candidate will have:

Understanding of and commitment to quality in education;

Understanding of how educational technology could be used to enhance education;

Knowledge and experience of instructional design principles and practices, including experience in e-learning resource development;

Knowledge and experience in the application of distance learning principles;

Leadership capability- including the ability to mentor and support other team members;

Planning and organising skills, including ability to maintain performance when under pressure, and appropriate prioritising of work for self and others;

Ability to strategically analyse data and present findings in a coherent manner to audiences across the polytechnic.

Open Polytechnic offers an environment committed to excellence, staff development and support. There is a large range of staff benefits available, including subsidised school holiday programmes, on-site therapeutic massages, cafe, free enrolment into our courses, subsidised study (for courses not available with us), free exercise classes and free parking.

If you want to grow your career and have a real desire to make a difference, we would love to hear from you.

Appointment salary offered is in the range of $76,000 to $82,000 and is dependent on the skills and experience brought to the role.

Please email your application to Elizabeth Frawley indicating which role you are applying for. Applications close 23 January 2014 at 4pm. Please note only online applications will be accepted.

‘The iHub’ (Innovative Technology Enhanced Learning in the Performing Arts) is a newly established department at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a remit to enhance the quality of performing arts education programmes delivery through adopting innovative, student centered, educational methodologies and integration of emerging technologies.

This department will support staff and students to make use of information and communications technology effectively in education and to develop and implement innovative teaching and learning strategies. It aims to establish the Academy as a leader in the development, support and implementation of innovative Performing Arts Education Technology Practices in the Asia Pacific Region.

Applications are invited for the positions under the EXPAND, ENRICH and ENABLE teams of the iHub (13 positions in total).

Call for Chapters: Foundations of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials

Springer publishing of New York invites scholars to submit proposals for an edited volume on “Foundations of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials” to be published in 2016.

Interested scholars should email a one page proposal to Dirk Ifenthaler by 30 January 2015, including author’s name (co-authors are welcome), institution, tentative title, chapter outline (max. 300 words), and five keywords. All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review by two reviewers who will recommend full submissions from among the proposals.

Digital Badges represent a valid indicator of specific achievements, knowledge, skills, and competencies that can be earned in formal and informal learning environments. Digital Badges represent an opportunity to recognize such achievements through credible organizations that can be integrated in traditional educational programs but can also represent experience in informal contexts or community engagement. Furthermore, instructional designers can use badges to motivate and influence engagement by providing for example focused goals or challenging tasks.

The edited volume “Foundations of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials” aims to provide insight into how Digital Badges may enhance formal and informal education by focusing on technological design issues including organizational requirements, instructional design, and deployment. It will feature current research exploring the theoretical foundation and empirical evidence of the utilization of Digital Badges as well as case studies that describe current practices and experiences in the use of Digital Badges for motivation, learning, and instruction in K-12, higher education, workplace learning, and further education settings. The edited volume is divided into four major parts:

Prospective authors (co-authors are welcome) are invited to submit a chapter proposal, including a title, abstract (max. 300 words), five keywords and the part of the book for their contribution (via email) no later than 30 January 2015.

Proposals should be previously unpublished works. Upon acceptance of the chapter proposal, the final chapter should be completed no later than 1 July 2015. Contributions will be double blind reviewed and returned with comments by 1 September 2015. Finalised chapters are due no later than 1 November 2015. Final contributions should not exceed 20 manuscript pages. Guidelines for preparing your chapter will be sent to you upon acceptance of your proposal.